California: Monterey County Free Libraries Celebrates 100 Years of Service & A New Library Building Opens in Los Gatos

[Last] Saturday, the MCFL system kicks off a year-long celebration of its centennial with a party at its Marina branch, with cake, music, crafts and a historical presentation (the actual birth date of the system will arrive in August). And though its history, like the size of the county it serves (3,200 square miles), is vast, historical self-reflection has been a smaller concern than serving its current constituents.

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Today, our [mission] is to get to all of our communities by whatever means necessary,” Addleman says. The branches stretch from Pajaro in North County to Bradley and Parkfield in South County. Carmel, Monterey, Pacific Grove and Salinas opted to run their libraries at the city level, because they believed they could better serve their local constituents and fund their libraries. The 17 county libraries, though, far outnumber them, serving about 220,000 people with a full- and part-time staff of about 70, including 16 credentialed librarians and an army of volunteers.

The Friends raised more than $2 million for furnishings, fixtures and technology for the new library.

The building itself cost approximately $18.5 million and is LEED-certified gold, a reflection of its environmentally-sensitive characteristics. For instance, there are solar panels on the roof, support piers made from recycled concrete and drought-tolerant landscaping. Rice singled out architects Noll & Tam and Bogard Construction, recognizing the LEED gold certification was due in part to the fact that “they went beyond expectations in bringing this masterpiece to fruition.

“We are the community’s living room,” said Los Gatos Library Director Linda Dydo, noting that the building even has a fireplace.

The Internet, she said, has only made libraries more important to people of all ages. Dydo, who recalls debates early in her career about whether libraries should line shelves with the suddenly popular paperbacks, said the venerable institutions have remained vital by staying current.[Cli

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The library is outfitted with 30 shiny iMac desktop computers that also run the Windows operating system for digital discoveries. It also offers e-books.

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.